Soviet repression against Nazi accomplices: mercy to the fallen. Part of 2
Attitude towards the Baltic collaborators
In the Baltics, and in Russia, many believe that the Nazi’s Baltic accomplices were severely punished: some were shot, others were sent to the Siberian gulag. But these opinions are just another myth that has nothing to do with reality.
It is no secret that the inhabitants of the Baltic States actively cooperated with the Nazis. The punitive units formed from them participated in actions on the territory of Russia and Belarus. They guarded German concentration camps from the Leningrad region in the north to Stalingrad in the south, and participated in battles at the front. In Estonia, 26 police battalions of approximately 10 thousand people were created, another approximately 15 thousand Estonians fought in the 20 6th Estonian SS division. Tens of thousands of Estonians joined the "self-defense" units - they participated in the protection of concentration camps, in raids on partisans and surrounded Soviet soldiers, shot prisoners and Jews. Actively collaborated with the Nazis in Latvia and Lithuania.
These people are now declared "heroes" who fought against Stalinism.
March of 16 SS Legion of March 2011 march in Riga.
It would seem that such an activity would be followed by an appropriate punishment: at least a special settlement or GULAG camps. Such a punishment now seems cruel, but at the time - it would be fair and completely legal. But in the fall of 1944, nothing like this happened. There was nothing to forgive them, there was no question of forced cooperation — there was no choice between the form of a Nazi and starvation. All went to the listed units voluntarily. But legally they fell under the directive of 11 of September 1943 of the year No. 494 / 94, therefore after the liberation of these territories they arrested mainly officers and those whose crimes against the population were proved. As a result, a minority of Nazi accomplices were arrested. For example: from October 1 to December 31 1944, the NKVD in Estonia arrested 356 gangsters (“forest brothers”), members of self-defense units and police, 620 soldiers of the German Army, 161 former Red Army fighters who went over to the Germans. From January 1 to August 25, 1945 in Estonia detained 1083 people who served in the Wehrmacht and self-defense units, 264 other accomplices. The Estonian NKGB arrested 1945 people in 6569, how many of them were Nazi traitors and collaborators.
Part of the Nazi accomplices from the Baltic states, including the remnants of the 20-th Estonian SS division, retreated with the Wehrmacht. They participated in the Battle of the Oder, then retreated to Czechoslovakia. Those who fell into the hands of the Czech partisans were shot, some Soviet officers “beat off” - they say, we can only punish “our people”.
In the current Baltic states, the Stalin regime is being blamed in every way, and we must say “thank you”, since the Kremlin has given privileges to the Baltic nations. First, they were received by civilian repatriates - repatriates were checked and sent home or to the army and working battalions; According to the NKVD directive of 3 in March, 1946 of the year, civilian Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians - all were sent to their place of residence, they were not called upon to join the army and the workers' battalions.
In April, the Council of Ministers of the USSR issued a decree of 1946: repatriated Balts who served in the German army, legions, police as privates and junior commanding officers were exempt from checking in filtration camps, from 6 of the special settlement and were sent home. Collaborationists of draft age were sent to work at enterprises in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and non-conscript ones were sent home right away.
Already at the beginning of 1947, the overwhelming majority of Baltic accomplices returned to the Baltic States. This is simply incredible mercy - those who have recently fought with weapons in the hands against the Red Army, participated in punitive actions, released and returned to their homeland. The documents completely refute the speculations of modern Baltic authors that during the “second Soviet occupation” a real genocide was committed.
The Kremlin could arrange a "sweep" of the Baltic States, had the full moral and legal right, but did not. Showing true Christian charity, magnanimity. Apparently, in vain ...
To sum up: archival documents disprove a whole group of anti-Soviet myths. Despite the rather large number of units created by Berlin from Soviet citizens, they did not pose a threat to Soviet power. Most of these people were "opportunists", they chose the form of the Nazis instead of execution and death from starvation. And at the first opportunity they tried to escape to “their own” at the front or to the partisans. In the Kremlin, realizing the difficulty of the situation of these people, they began to pursue a rather humane repressive policy towards them, strictly punishing only officers and war criminals. This fact completely refutes the idea of the “second civil war”, which is advocated by a number of revisionist historians.
The lie and the myth that they punished in arbitrary order (“for a cart of hay” handed over to the Germans) punished those who committed specific crimes, the overwhelming majority of the Nazi collaborators did not suffer, although they were taken into account.
Stories about “innocent victims” are just a part of the information war unleashed against our past and the Russian people with the goal of equating the USSR and the Third Reich, Stalinism and Hitlerism, eventually turning the USSR-Russia into the perpetrators of the Second World War.
Most of the accomplice repatriates did not even get into the Gulag, although they deserved it, most were sent to special settlements, where they had a fairly free lifestyle (without a convoy, moved freely in the area, etc.).
The myth is also the “act of genocide” of the Baltic peoples, on the contrary, the Baltic Nazi accomplices received substantial concessions, unlike other accomplices of Hitler.
The Soviet policy was very restrained and humane, everything else was speculation, information war, the desire to “whitewash” oneself and one’s ancestors.
Sources of:
Great slandered war-2. We have nothing to repent! Collection of ed. A. Dyukova. M. 2008.
Dyukov A. R. For what the Soviet people fought. M., 2007.
Zemskov V.N. Special settlers in the USSR, 1930-1960. M., 2005.
Mozokhin, O. B. The Right to Repression: The Extrajudicial Powers of the State Security Bodies (1918-1953). M., 2006.
Bodies of state security of the USSR in the Great Patriotic War: Collection of documents. M., 2000.
Sokolov B.V. Occupation: Truth and Myths. M., 2002.
Solzhenitsyn A. And the Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956. M., 1990. T.3.
Information